After 23 years, Homeless Prevention Council has left its location at 14 Old Tote Road in Orleans.

But that's a particularly good thing.

The council's former office will soon turn into year-round housing.

The new office is at 8 Main St. in Orleans.

"That was a really great part of the process," said CEO Hadley Luddy, knowing that the old office would be a home for somebody else to be on the Cape year-round.

The nonprofit served more than 41,000 people while at the old address, Luddy said. The council had outgrown its space, said Luddy. Services increased by 70% since the pandemic.

"It was just not large enough to accommodate our growing team," said Luddy. "With growing community need and expanding staff, we needed to be in a better, more centralized and safer space."

Luddy said they examined renovating the Old Tote Road building, but staff learned that buying the new location was dramatically less expensive.

In mid-April, the organization moved to its new location, a two-minute drive from the original spot.

The agency bought the building for $1.15 million, according to a deed recorded with the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds. Luddy said the closing was in December.

"This was only made possible due to a core group of very generous donors and foundations as well as our many, many volunteers and building committee members and board and staff and the whole community of folks that really got behind this project," said Luddy.

With some minor upgrades and construction, the new space is meeting the organization's needs, including offering greater visibility and safer and larger work space, she said.

As an example, she said the Old Tote Road building was unable to accommodate gatherings, so it was difficult to bring larger groups of clients or colleagues together or accommodate a full board meeting. In the new space, the nonprofit was able to host two gatherings to celebrate the REACH program, a skill development and wellness program that has ended its fifth year.

Groups of former and current REACH participants, donors, staff, and board celebrated the program.

"We've really been able to see the ability that we now have to build community here at Main Street," said Luddy.

The building previously housed Pike Insurance Agency. More recently, it was home to two local attorneys and Kaplansky Insurance.

"The nice part is that we have been able to accommodate those tenants and they've simply moved upstairs," said Luddy.

A local restaurant owner bought the Old Tote Road building to create several new apartments. There's already one deed-restricted affordable rental on the first floor.

"Our real hope here is that more people who have heard about our work or are curious about our work to come in and see how we can help them keep living and working here on Cape Cod," said Luddy.